


Locked Away

by MorganaNK



Category: Inspector Lynley - All Media Types, Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 03:57:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9957686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganaNK/pseuds/MorganaNK
Summary: The mind has its reasons...





	

**Author's Note:**

> Property of Elizabeth George and the BBC, no copyright infringement intended

...I became aware of a steady beeping noise. I tried to open my eyes but they didn’t seem to want to oblige me. I could also feel something in my throat; it felt like I was choking. I attempted to claw at my mouth, trying to remove whatever it was, but my arms and hands seemed to have gone on strike with my eyes. If I could have screamed with frustration then I would have; instead I was trapped inside a body that didn’t seem to want to cooperate with me, and I didn’t know why.

I was desperate and scared. I didn’t know what was going on, why I was unable to open my eyes or move my body; I didn’t know what it was that was stuck down my throat and making me feel like I was choking, and I didn’t know where I was. All in all, I didn’t know much, except that there was something very, very wrong.

...I gathered that I was in hospital and that I was in a coma; or at least that is what the voices in the darkness told me. It appeared that I had been badly injured in the car crash and, although my wounds were healing, my body didn’t want to allow me to join the real world. Maybe I couldn’t face what had happened; I certainly had no memory of it other than what the voices were telling me. I couldn’t think why I didn’t want to face things; the voices had also told me that the accident hadn’t been my fault.

I was climbing the walls, obviously not literally as that would have been one medical miracle too far, but metaphorically I was virtually touching the ceiling. I wanted my life back; I just didn’t have a clue how to go about it.

...Some of the voices in the darkness were familiar to me and some of them weren’t, but they kept on telling me the same things. While there was no reason for me to stay in the coma I shouldn’t try and force things. I would come back into the land of the living when I was good and ready. That was fine for them; they weren’t the ones who were locked away inside a cell with no windows; frustrated beyond belief, and wishing that the world would go back to normal.

Different voices talked to me at different times; they asked me questions which I had no hope in hell of answering, even if it wasn’t for the intubation tube that they had so kindly informed me was the thing that they had stuck down my throat in order to help me breathe. It didn’t seem to me that it was doing anything like helping, but then I didn’t know how my body was reacting on the outside. All I knew was that I was locked away deep inside of it. I felt perfectly normal, just a prisoner.

...According to the voices I had been in hospital for six weeks, and had been in a coma for all that time. On the outside my body had healed perfectly, my breathing tube had been removed, and there were hardly any scars to show that anything had happened to me, but I was still locked away in what was increasingly beginning to feel like some perverse form of solitary confinement. The voices had changed their minds now, and they kept telling me that there was no reason for me to still be like I was and, apparently, I had so much to come around for. I didn't know if that was true, but what I was sure of was that I had just about had enough of being in this disjointed limbo. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare. 

...I woke, only this time something was different. My eyelids fluttered open, closing again rapidly as I was blinded by brightness. I blinked repeatedly. Slowly things began to coalesce into recognisable items. I turned my head and saw someone sitting beside my bed, someone I both recognised and remembered.

“Moth… Mother.”

She reached out and took my hand in both of hers. “I’m here Tommy darling, I’m here.”

I looked around expectantly, someone was missing, someone important. Thinking about it, in all the time I had been in a coma, I hadn’t once heard her voice. 

“Where’s Barbara?”

I saw Mother’s face fall.

“Tell me," I demanded; my heart fluttering frantically in my chest. 

“There was an accident Tommy, a terrible accident.” 

“Where is Barbara?”

“Barbara was badly injured, very badly injured. I’m so sorry Tommy, Barbara died at the scene.”

An inhuman scream burst forth from deep inside of me. I wrenched my hand free and writhed on the bed in agony, my heart shattering into a million tiny fragments.

“No! Not Barbara! No! No, no, no!”

The medical staff rushed into the room, crowding round me, speaking words I couldn't understand. I felt a coldness seeping through my veins and the world became fuzzy again. As it faded to black I was left with just one thought. Now I knew the reason I hadn’t wanted to wake up.


End file.
